What's on This Page?
In the boxes on this page, you will find links and citations to information resources on the history of Africa.
For advice on finding books on your topic, see the 'How to Find Books' tab of the World History (generally) research guide.
World History by Region: Africa
Dictionary of African biography.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
- via Oxford Reference Online.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Encyclopedia of African colonial conflicts.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2017.
Encyclopedia of African history.
New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005.
- Ref DT20 .E53 2005 v1-3
New encyclopedia of Africa.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Detroit, Mich.: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. v1-5
The Palgrave handbook of African colonial and postcolonial history.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Reference guide to Africa: a bibliography of sources.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
Cambridge history of Africa.
New York: Cambridge University Press , 1975-1986.
- Main Library and Ethnic & Gender Studies Ref DT20 .C28 v1-8
- v1. From the earliest times to 500 B.C.--v2. From c. 500 BC to AD 1050.--v3. From c. 1050 to c. 1600.--v4. From c. 1600 to c. 1790.--v5. From c. 1790 to c. 1870.--v6. From 1870 to 1905.--v7. Fron 1905 to 1940.--v8. From c. 1940 to c. 1975.
Historical atlas of Africa.
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
- Science & Engineering G2446.S1 H5 1985
See also the 'Historical dictionary of...' series to find titles such as Historical dictionary of Algeria (Ref DT283.7 .N39 2015), Historical dictionary of Eritrea (Ref DT2925 .R83 2001), and the Historical dictionary of Nigeria (Ref DT515.15 .F35 2018). To find these, do an Advanced Search in UCSB Library Search for the Title 'Historical dictionary of' followed by the name of the country of interest to you.
The African studies companion: a guide to information sources.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Glais Bheinn: Hans Zell, 2003.
- Also in print at Main Library DT19.8 .Z45 2003
A dictionary of African politics.
[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Additional Reference Sources for World History by Region (Africa):
Additional encyclopedias are listed on the United States History research guide, under the "Reference Sources" → "Encyclopedias & Dictionaries" tab.
Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History (generally) research guide, under the "Reference Sources" → "Encyclopedias & Dictionaries" tab.
Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History by Period research guide, under the "Prehistory & Ancient" tab, the "Medieval History" tab, etc.
Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History by Region research guide, under the "Africa" tab, the "Asia" tab, etc.
Additional encyclopedias are listed on the World History by Topic research guide, under the "Commerce, Commodities & Material Culture" tab, the "Empires, Borderlands & their Legacies" tab, etc.
- Africa-Wide Information (NiPAD) This link opens in a new window[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Essential resource for those with an interest in African research, with over 3.5 million citations and abstracts dating back to the 16th century. - Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
A bibliographic database containing citations to articles on the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada), primarily from 1450 to the present. - African Journals Online This link opens in a new windowAfrican Journals Online is a website (and South African Non Profit Organisation) hosting peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals. It currently provides the tables of contents, abstracts and full text of over 400 journals. The project started in 1997 and continues to grow in number of titles. There are titles in agriculture, health, science and technology, and humanities and social sciences.
Primary sources provide immediate, firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an event or topic.
Examples of primary sources include letters and diaries; photographs, audio and motion picture recordings; transcribed speeches; books, newspapers and magazines published during the period under consideration; government documents and other publications; oral histories, autobiographies and memoirs; and even artifacts, like clothing, furniture, and other items of material culture from the period.
- African Newspapers This link opens in a new window[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
Forty historical African newspapers from Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, as published between 1800 and 1922. Languages include English, German, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Sotho, and others. Access to this collection purchased in collaboration with the Center For Research Libraries (CRL). - Empire Online This link opens in a new window[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
A database of original documents relating to Empire Studies from 1492 held in libraries and archives around the world.
- Ross Archive of African Images.A database of published images of African art from Yale University Library's James J. Ross Archive of African Images 1590-1920.
- Tebtunis Papyri Collection This link opens in a new window[online resource; UCSB IP addresses only]
The Tebtunis Papyri Collection consists of the papyrus documents that were found in the winter of 1899/1900 at the site of ancient Tebtunis, Egypt. The Tebtunis papyri form the largest collection of papyrus texts in the Americas.
- History : Africa: Primary SourcesAn excellent set of links to primary source collections curated by the University of Washington
- History: Africa: Primary SourcesAn excellent set of links to primary source collections, from the University of Washington.